East Side board reshaped

East Side board reshaped

ASHEBORO — New board members were selected Saturday in a reorganization of the East Side Improvement Association (ESIA).

The action coincides with fund-raising initiated last week to address a default on a $175,000 loan taken out by the non-profit group in 2000 to renovate a gymnasium on the former campus of Central School in east Asheboro. An elementary school on the property is also affected by a pending foreclosure.

The outstanding debt is $82,940.99.

Deneal McNair will serve as president and acting chair of the 11-member board. Other members seated so far are Michele Hammond, Junitha Goldston, Bradley Brown, Dr. Rochelle Cassidy, Dexter Trogdon Jr., Robin Mabry and Centerra Harris. Three seats remain to be filled. Cassidy will be chief financial officer of the group.

“We’re moving forward,” McNair said Saturday. “First and foremost, we’re doing all we can to raise these funds to keep the ownership of those buildings in the community.”

During a community meeting Tuesday, McNair asked members of the community to band together to raise money and save two buildings that mean so much in east Asheboro.

The foreclosure date is Feb. 13. The immediate goal is to get, by Feb. 10, at least 250 $100 donations — or another combination of donations large and small totaling $25,000 — to demonstrate to the bank that there is a willingness, and an ability, to address the debt.

There are three buildings on the old Central School property. The original two-story school, which opened in 1926, has been transformed into apartments for low-income, elderly residents. A former one-story elementary school building houses the Asheboro Day Care Center; the freestanding gym is home to the Central Boys & Girls Club.

Until 1965, when the buildings were shuttered as part of school integration, the campus was the hub of community activity, school-related and otherwise. In 1981, the ESIA purchased the then-dilapidated build and slowly renovated them, recreating the community hub.

“This community really embraces this as the cultural center of this community, the heart of this community,” said Hammond, one of the new board members.

“For others, it’s brick and mortar, a place. For us, it’s our community center. It’s our heritage. It’s where we connect because we are all connected to the property. It means a lot to us.”

The new board has new bylaws and plans to open a new bank account on Monday. McNair promised that the board will be more transparent and will work to formulate and establish a plan so the former school properties can become a sustainable operation.

He said people who care about the old school and the gym have rallied around the cause in just a few days. Some live near by. Some grew up here but live far away now. Nearly 1,000 people are members of a Facebook group named Save Eastside Asheboro Gymnasium & Daycare. East side resident Centerra Harris has established an online fund-raising effort.

Two more community meetings have been scheduled. Both will be held in the gym on Watkins Street. The first one will be on Saturday, Feb. 1, at 3 p.m.; the second is set for Tuesday, Feb. 4, at 6 p.m.

McNair is also asking community supporters of the effort to attend the Feb. 3 meeting of the Randolph County commissioners, who received an ESIA request for help at their December meeting. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. in the County Office Building at 725 McDowell Road in Asheboro. Supporters are also asked to attend the next meeting of the Asheboro city council, which will begin at 7 p.m. on Feb. 6 in second-floor council chambers in City Hall, 146 N. Church St.